Accepting customer signatures for credit card transactions places fairly significant cost and functional burdens on a business. When a retailer uses paper receipts the retailer typically: prints multiple receipts (one for the customer, one for the retailer, etc.), requests that the customer sign at least one copy, and stores/archives their original signed receipt (often maintaining a huge volume of original signed receipts).
If the retailer is deploying an electronic signature capturing technology, then the retailer must have an expensive specific type of transaction terminal (an Electronic Payment Terminal (e.g. VERIFONE®, etc.) or have an expensive digitizer device (e.g. TOPAZ®, etc.) somewhere in the retailer's system. In some retail environments, such as quick service environments, having a separate signature-capture device on the counter doesn't make sense because it would occupy counter space, which is already a limited and valued commodity. Moreover, the addition of a separate signature-capture device adds expense to any Point-Of-Sale (POS) solution deployed by a retailer.
Still further, even though laws have been relaxed in terms of when a signature is required by a retailer for a credit card purchase (based on the value of the purchase), retailers still must have manual or automated mechanisms in place to account for any purchase that does require signature record keeping. Thus, the retailer cannot avoid signature processing and the concomitant expenses and burdens associated therewith.
Accordingly, there is a need for a lower-cost and more efficient mechanism for signature processing.